be marching swiftly, trying to find you, and to find me. Stay ahead of them - I will find you and feed you."
With that, she was gone, and the legend of the Dragon of To-gai had grown a bit more.
Over the next few weeks, Brynn and Agradeleous hit settlement after settlement, scattering their attacks far and wide to avoid any organized at-tempt by the Behrenese army to trap them. As the woman had promised, she returned often to the To-gai-ru encampment, delivering stolen supplies-And so the To-gai-ru grew stronger while the Behrenese chased ghosts and died by the score. And the word went out, throughout To-gai and into that the Dragon of To-gai and her army had returned to the steppes of their homeland.
n western Behren, the news was received with mixed feelings, more re trepidation. Though Brynn was running unchecked throughout steppes, and many Behrenese were being slaughtered, at least she was of Behren, they believed, where the army had been unable to find and jestroy her, and every city seemed vulnerable.
In Avrou Eesa, Yatol Bardoh took the news as an invitation to brag that he and his soldiers had chased the Dragon of To-gai away, often punctuat-ing his long-winded speeches with promises that he would march out in the spring and finish the Dragon of To-gai once and for all.
Many To-gai-ru slaves in Avrou Eesa heard those boasts, and relayed them out of the city. Thus Pagonel and the To-gai-ru army, wintering safely and quietly in the fields scattered within the Mountains of Fire, heard them, too.
PART 4 THE DRAGON OF TO-GAI Chapter 32 Hit and Run?
He has a great army at his disposal," Pagonel reminded Brynn. I 11 Farther north, the winter snows were beginning to relin-?L. - L. quish their grip upon the land, and there near the Moun-tains of Fire, the day was almost uncomfortably warm. ?Yatol Bardoh boasts because he believes himself to be safe."
Brynn looked around at her army, now more than six thousand strong. They were eager, she knew, hungry to be back on the roads that would lead them to the next Behrenese city that would fall before them. And though Brynn had seen much fighting over the winter, she too longed for a great battle, man against man, army against army.
"Do you believe that the dog Bardoh will come out after us, as he has de-clared?" she asked.
Pagonel shrugged noncommitally.
"Do you believe that we might lure him from his city?"
Pagonel shrugged again, and looked at Brynn hard. ?Even if you do, going against that army would be folly, for it is as great a force as is now in To-gai. And Yatol Bardoh..."
He paused as Brynn spat upon the ground.
"He is reputed to be a fine military leader," the mystic finished.
"He is a murdering dog, and nothing more," said Brynn. ?And before this is ended, I will have his head."
Pagonel's expression became even more puzzled. ?You would risk all to go against him?"
Brynn's hard look didn't answer the question in the least, and for a mo-ment, the mystic honestly feared that Brynn would do just that.
"I will get him out of Avrou Eesa and into Behren," Brynn declared. ?Not too far over the plateau rim. I want him to see the smoke from the fires when I destroy his city."
Pagonel had never seen her so grim and so determined.
Brynn said no more, but walked from the encampment and through a pass, to where Agradeleous waited.
She and the dragon had made several journeys back there during the winter months, but this one uj(j be the shortest stay, for that very night, after only a few hours among i.er forces, the Dragon of To-gai was back in the air, flying fast for the north.
They stayed along the plateau rim for a long way, with Brynn taking care-ful note of the terrain, a plan already beginning to form.
Yes, she would lure Yatol Tohen Bardoh from his home, and let him sit up on the plateau helplessly while his home burned.
She found Tanalk Grenk and her To-gai forces right where she had left them, and surprised them indeed when she ordered a split among them, with a portion of the strongest warriors riding south and east, and the rest, accom-panying those who could not fight, fleeing straightaway to the southland.
"Now, with the weather at last breaking, you will get your fight," Brynn told the force that would travel with her, and that brought as many con-cerned murmurs as eager grins. The To-gai-ru understood the